User-Authored Online Help
Is it manageable by technical communicators?
If so, then how would the good content become promoted over the 'bad' content?
To what extent are technical communicators who write online help for a product prepared to manage user-authored content that may or may not be accurate, timely, fair, or reflective of company values?
Has the term 'online help' evolved to encompass the content that serves those who go online for any kind of help? For example, my dog is having an unresolvable itching problem which the vet says is an allergy. I want to find out if anyone 'online' can offer any 'help'.
If yes, and the read/write web seems to reflect this, then should technical communicators be involved in online help at all, or should we now turn our efforts to disseminating user-authored content, applying a style guide, and re-posting it as "approved" content. What would happen to technical communication as a respected field?
Perhaps the analytical, research, and organizational skills of the technical communicator are custom made for managing content in the read/write online help social universe.
Aim and FocusTo what extent are technical communicators who write online help for a product prepared to manage user-authored content that may or may not be accurate, timely, fair, or reflective of company values?
Gap in KnowledgeQuantity vs Quality of User-Authored Content
QuestionsIs it manageable by technical communicators? How?
Why or why not?
Is anyone managing user-authored content now?
What tools or methods are they using?
What has been the outcome?
Sub QuestionsNow is the time to look at user-authored online help by the technical communication community. Each day I use Google to find answers and last week I used a discussion board to try to find out what was wrong with my PDA. I did this for a full two-three days before I even considered calling Tech Support. Why?
I don't know what work is being done in this area. I need to find out.
My position is that the technical communication industry is being overrun by user-authored online help and that user attitudes towards corporate-sponsored content is negative.
I need to find out what the experts are saying about this.
I'm not sure what my research methodology should be other than researching articles. There is a possibility of conducting a study at my place of employment where we are trying to determine why our own users are turning to wikis.
I don't have an outline plan of study or stages of my work.
There are ethical considerations, not for the statement but for the industry. As companies fail to act on the quantity of user-authored online help and allow it to become the accepted voice of the product, there could be legal and ethical considerations.
For example, a prominent blogger may post his or her favorite usage of a certain OTC medication. Say, they combine acetominophen with ibuprofen and they down it with a red bull and they profess this is the way to manage a headache, or something like that. The blogger's followers might try it and some may suffer consequences. Who is to blame?
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, Third Edition
A 2010 review of this 2006 book urges "novice folks to read the Richardson chapter on blogs or wikis or whatever was to be covered" in a tech tools workshop. "Richardson calls for researchers to identify ways in which instructors can take full advantage of read/write Internet capabilities to enhance learning for their students." Cifuentes (2009). Cifuentes does not mention whether or not Richardson's book explains the technical writer/learner relationship in the read/write environment. This book holds promise and so I plan to check it out.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Why users prefer the “chaos of the Web” over the Online Help
Why users prefer the “chaos of the Web” over the Online Help
In addition to the sources shown in my blog, my continuing research involves the following:
· Definitions of Web 2.0 (read/write Web) and Online Help
· History of Web 2.0 and Online Help
· Sources supporting user preference for Web over Online Help
· Sources either refuting the theory or stating some other unaligned claim
Research Topic Search Terms and Search Method
Search Terms and Phrases used on MNSU Library Services
1. Collective knowledge
2. Knowledgebases
3. Read/write web
4. Wikis
5. Wikipedia
6. Ever-changing user requirements
7. Dynamic online help
8. Dynamic user communities
9. User-created product manuals
10. User-design products
11. Collective information
12. Public realm
13. Are all the old books and dictionaries bad then?
14. Terms searched
15. Web 2.0
16. Online help
17. Kids and the internet
18. Community
19. Internet communities
20. Chat rooms
21. Discussion boards
22. Forums
23. Blogs
24. Facebook
25. Twitter
26. Online documentation
27. Online manuals
28. Product manuals online – accessibility and usability
29. Times a person used online help vs the internet chaos
Quick Fix: Product Manuals Online
Meyers would applaud O’Keefe’s suggestion of taking advantage of search engine business rules to make product documentation appear prominently in search engine results. Meyers gives no-nonsense and practical ways of finding user’s manuals for company products including going to the manufacturer’s Web site. Written in 2003, Meyers may not have been aware of the great Web 2.0 transformation taking place. I suspect users would not go to these lengths to find a product manual unless they are looking for technical specifications or proof that a product can or cannot do something. I suspect users would like to poke fun at product manuals through their Twitter accounts.
Meyers, Peter. 2003. "Quick Fix: Product Manuals Online." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, August 12. D1. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed September 17, 2010).
As kids go online, help lines go quiet
This report, focused on telephone help lines in Canada, provides factual information about how organizations are being forced to go online by teens’ use of the Internet. This proves to me that younger generations are either too lazy to use a telephone help line or they prefer the community of the Internet. I suspect there is a little bit of both.
Findlay, Stephanie. 2009. "As kids go online, help lines go quiet." Maclean's 122, no. 34: 21. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed September 17, 2010).
Using Customer Contact Center Technicians to Measure the Effectiveness of Online Help Systems
This technical article is of interest to me as a technical writer employee in a data management environment. This is one resource that I can use to refute any claims that all online help systems will eventually contain user-generated content or be user driven and owned. Customer contact centers cannot give away sensitive data and so the customer service representative is not likely to turn to user-generated content to help a customer. At least not today. In the future, I think it is highly likely that organizations will go out and gather user-generated content from Web 2.0 and bring it back into the online help systems. Perhaps this will be done in real time.
Downing, Joe. 2007. "Using Customer Contact Center Technicians to Measure the Effectiveness of Online Help Systems." Technical Communication 54, no. 2: 201-209. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed September 24, 2010).
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